In the slums of great-depression Chicago, Mark Simmons is just another trouble-shooter desperate for a dollar – but even in a time rich with trouble that needs shooting, Mark must gamble everything just to get a job.

Jenny Rubicon’s sister went missing as a child, only to reappear ten years later as a drug-running assassin with a dark reputation. But Jenny is a quick-shooting fast-talking flapper who’ll do anything to get her sibling back, even if that means becoming just like her. When Jenny hires Mark to help, the two chase Wren halfway around the globe and deep into a surreal underworld of illusion, violence, lust and magic.

Wren and her strange, occult allies are locked in a desperate conflict – a violent struggle threatening the balance of power in a world already preparing for war. If Mark and Jenny want to win her trust, they’ll need to choose where to stand, and what to let fall.

Cold-Morning is an ongoing web serial about globe-trotting not-quite-hero Marcus Summanus and his misadventures with magic, gangsters, and mayhem in the 1930s. It is noir, violent, sometimes sexy, often snarky, and intended for a mature audience. It’s an ongoing story, so it’s best to start at the beginning. Everything will make more sense that way.

Text updates publish on Thursdays. Patreon supporters get to read or listen two chapters ahead and may download pdf and epub versions, including cut content and extra side-stories.

Author Cullen McHael has been an activist, a journalist, a professor, a kick-boxer, a circus performer, a monk, a film-maker, and a game-designer. Cullen dwells deep in the American Midwest where crop circles carve mystery into the endless rows of corn and the stars shine just a little too brightly.Blog. Facebook. Twitter.